The OWID e.V.

The association OWID e.V. and its members

The association „Ombudsgremium für die wissenschaftliche Integrität in Deutschland“ e.V. („Ombuds Committee for Research Integrity in Germany“; OWID e.V.) was official registered in 2024 as a supporting association for the Ombuds Committee of the same name. The work of the Ombuds Committee and the association’s bodies is supported by an office in Berlin.

With the establishment of the association, the Ombuds Committee and its office will receive institutional funding by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) starting from 2025.

The charter of OWID e.V. can be downloaded here. OWID e.V. is registered at the Local Court (Amtsgericht) of Bonn (under the registry number VR 12366).

Members of the association OWID e.V. are the following members of the Alliance of Science Organisations (Allianz der Wissenschaftsorganisationen):

The Board of OWID e.V.

The board of the association OWID consists of two chairs, whereby one chair always belongs to the DFG and the second chair belongs to another member organisation. Chair of the association is Dr. Heide Ahrens, Secretary General of the DFG with vice-chair being Dr. Jens-Peter Gaul, Secretary General of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK).

Mandate

The mandate of the association OWID e.V. is the promotion of science and research through standardisation and the safeguarding of good research practice in Germany.

The charter of OWID e.V. (in § 2 Abs. 3 “Satzungszweck”) specifies the core tasks of the association as follows:

  1. updating and further development of standards in the area of good research practice;
  2. educating research institutions and researchers in the area of good research practice;
  3. mediation to resolve conflicts between research institutions and/or individual researchers with the aim of implementing the standards of good research practice;
  4. national and international collaboration with experts in the field of research integrity with the aim of actively shaping the discourse on good research practice and facilitating the processing of international, cross-border cases of research misconduct.

The remit of the Ombuds Committee and its office

The Ombuds Committee and its office provide confidential advice on questions concerning research integrity as well as conflicts relating to research integrity. If requested by the enquirers, an ombuds procedure can be initiated for the purpose of mediation. In addition, the Ombuds Committee and its office regularly organise the symposium of ombudspersons on research integrity and collaborate nationally and internationally with research integrity experts. Members of the Ombuds Committee and its office regularly give talks on their activities. Based on its experience with diverse cases, the Ombuds Committee actively contributes to the promotion and updating of the recommendations on research integrity. The ‘Discussion hubs’ project, in which three researchers are employed, was implemented in 2020 to support the work of the Ombus Committee.

In accordance with its charter, as of 2025 the Ombuds Committee consists of at least four researchers representing the fields of life sciences, natural sciences, engineering as well as social sciences and humanities, thus covering the methodological spectrum of research practices and approaches. At the inaugural meeting of the association, it was decided to expand the Ombuds Committee to five members in order to cover a wider spectrum of research disciplines.

More information about the role and remit of the Ombuds Committee can be found in the Procedural Guidelines as well in the FAQ pages.

On the history of the Ombuds Committee

The nationwide Ombuds Committee was first appointed in 1999 by the Senate of the German Research Foundation under the name ‘Ombudsman of the DFG’. In 2010 the Committee was renamed into the German Research Ombudsman (in German: Ombudsman für die Wissenschaft). This further emphasised the independent activity of the committee and cleary marked the ombuds proceedings conducted by the Ombuds Committee as separate from the DFG’s own proceedings to investigate allegations of research misconduct in connection with funding or other DFG-related matters. Previously, funding for the Ombuds Committee was granted on a temporary basis and was tied to the university of the spokesperson of the committee.

With the establishment of the association, the Ombuds Committee and its office will receive institutional funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) starting from 2025. This first required a resolution passed by the German Federal Parliament’s budget committee (2022), allowing the Ombuds Committee and its office to receive institutional funding from the DFG (see DFG Press Release No 39, September 2024). This was made possible by the commitment of the DFG, which campaigned intensively for this change and the founding of the association at several levels. Since 2024, a separate administrative structure for OWID e.V. is being established with the help of a new administration at the Ombuds Committee’s office, which will commence its independent operations in March 2025.

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